Conflict, peace and mental health

A case study from Northern Ireland on addressing trauma and loss: Second edition

David Bolton

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN:
  9781526190499
  9781526190482
• eBook ISBN:
  9781526190512
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Irish History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

A powerful guide for dealing with traumatised communities in the wake of conflict and disaster.

What are the human consequences of conflict, and how should healthcare and social services respond? In this book, David Bolton provides an answer to these urgent questions, drawing on more than twenty-five years of service experience in Northern Ireland and elsewhere.

Focusing on the work he undertook with colleagues following the devastating Omagh bombing in 1998, Bolton reveals how needs were assessed and how evidence-based services were put in place. He describes the training and education programmes that were developed to assist first those communities directly affected by the bombing and later the wider population traumatised by the years of conflict. Crucially, he places the mental-health needs of affected communities at the heart of the political and peace processes that follow.

The second edition of this clear and practical book includes new chapters on the challenges of promoting justice and reconciliation in a post-conflict situation. It is essential reading for those planning for and responding to conflict-related disasters, policy makers, service commissioners and providers, politicians, civil servants and peace makers.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures and tables
• List of abbreviations and glossary
• Acknowledgements
• Timeline
• Preface to the second edition
• Introduction
• 1 The Omagh bombing and the community’s response
• 2 The Omagh Community Trauma and Recovery Team
• 3 Assessing the mental health impact of the Omagh bombing
• 4 The mental health impact of the Troubles, 1969–1999
• 5 The mental health impact of the conflict in Northern Ireland, 2000–2015
• 6 The Northern Ireland Centre for Trauma and Transformation: a comprehensive trauma centre
• 7 The development of a trauma-focused therapy programme
• 8 Trauma-focused skills training for practitioners
• 9 Research, advocacy and policy support
• 10 Planning for and responding to the mental health impact of conflict
• 11 From conflict management to conflict transformation: progress in Northern Ireland since 2017
• 12 Re-thinking how to address the needs of the victims of conflict and to build the post-conflict community
• Postscript: the rupture of loss and trauma
• Appendix
• Bibliography
• Index